If you usually hang out at winebars, you know what I am talking about.

One of the worst violences committed to the wine is the wild swirling of the glass.

If you are unluck, you can also witness a sacrilegious Champagne shake.

Let's see how and why to swirl the wine glass:

In order to know how to swirl the wine, not looking too goofy, it is necessary to know why you should do that.

Well, the reason why swirling the glass is getting more oxygen into the wine, it helps the wine to open up to the nose and giving off the aromas.
It is not necessary to give a hard shake to the wine, so please just slightly flick your wrist making little circles in the air. The oldest the vintage of your wine, the most the wine needs to open up.

N.B. Please, be aware that all that was said before, is not valid for sparkling wines.

If you will ever see somebody oxigenate a Champagne, please just leave the place. Do it for the winemakers, spending so much time, passion and patience on creating the perlage, and do it for yourselves. If you swirl a Champagne wine, you can say adios to the perlage. If a sparkling was made with bubbles, leave the bubbles. The carbon dioxide in the wine will help to bring the flavours to your nose.

Do the right thing. Swirl it, with moderation.

Cheers,

VM